What will a tax consultant cost in 2023?

Not everyone knows about income-related expenses, operating and special expenses or extraordinary burdens. And yet some employees or self-employed people grapple with a tax return once a year. By then at the latest, many are flirting with a tax consultant in order to save themselves the complicated German tax law. But what does such an expert cost? When is it worth going to a professional?

When do you need a tax advisor?

In fact, most salaried employees do not need a tax consultant. You can easily do your tax return yourself. The “Elster” program from the tax authorities or tax software can help with this. This applies above all to those who do not receive any other income apart from their wages.

In some cases, however, it is better if a professional takes care of the tax return. This is especially the case when there are different types of income, such as self-employment, (foreign) investment income or tax-saving models, as well as renting and leasing. Even very special cases require the knowledge of a tax expert.

This includes employees who work abroad (also partly), cross-border commuters who live in Germany and work in a neighboring country or inheritances. Having your own solar system on the roof can also complicate a tax return.

What are the alternatives to a tax consultant?

Those who shy away from going to a tax consultant can turn to the income tax assistance. This advises employees, pensioners and retirees. The prerequisite is membership in an income tax assistance association. This costs around 150 euros per year on average. 100 euros of this can be deducted as tax consulting costs.

The association prepares the tax return, sends it to the tax office and also takes care of all further correspondence with the authorities. The income tax assistance also provides support in the event of an objection to the decision or a lawsuit.

However, anyone who receives additional income in addition to their work or retirement income must observe a limit. If the income from capital gains or rental and leasing exceeds EUR 18,000, a tax consultant must be consulted. Then the wage tax assistance may no longer advise. This also applies to the self-employed, regardless of whether you are a freelancer or a trader: you must look for a tax advisor.

Read more about taxes and tax returns 2022/23:

What does a tax advisor do?

Tax consultants support employees, the self-employed and companies in their tax matters. Specifically, they take on the following tasks:

• Prepare income tax return
• Payment of Social Security Contributions
• trade tax return
• Income Excess Account
• annual balance sheet
• Advance sales tax return and declaration
• corporate tax return
• Payroll
• financial accounting
• liquidity planning
• Advice on inheritance or donation cases
• assessments
• Tax appeal procedures

How do I find a good tax advisor?

One method of finding the right tax advisor is recommendations from colleagues or friends. The websites of the law firms provide further information. Are there already tax tips or videos with useful content? Are the qualifications of the employees presented transparently? Information on the costs is usually rarely found.

In any case, an initial interview helps, after all – in addition to the qualifications – the chemistry must also be right. Explain your personal situation and your expectations. Do clients have their “own” contact person or does this change? How good is the accessibility?

Some tax consultants have specialized in certain professional groups and are particularly fit in this area. These can be farmers, craftsmen, freelancers or medical professions. Others have specialized in certain legal forms such as cooperatives, are experts in inheritance and gifts or in international tax law.

The Federal Chamber of Tax Advisors has set up a search service for those who want to go looking for a tax advisor without recommendations. Here you can find specialists for specific fields or by postal code, around 15,000 law firms and consultants are listed.

The tax advisor cooperative Datev also offers a search service. Datev members present themselves with their offer profile on Smartexperts.de. You can also search by location and topic here.

What are the costs for a tax consultant?

The costs for tax consultants are regulated in the remuneration regulations for tax consultants (StBVV). A table gives an overview. There are bandwidths in which the tax consultant can set his fees. One factor determines the final amount of tax advisor fees. If the expert incurs more work, for example due to additional documentation or sorting of documents, this factor increases. This is particularly the case for freelancers and commercial companies. The concrete costs are thus determined as follows: basic fee x factor. Different activities have different bandwidths and different tables as a basis.

Examples of fees for tax advisory services according to StBVV:

Performance	bandwidth factor	Costs
Prepare income tax return (without determining income)	1/10 to 6/10	Table A, item value at least 8000 euros
Statement on the separate determination of income (without determining income)	1/10 to 5/10	Table A, item value at least 8000 euros
corporate tax return	2/10 to 8/10	Annex A, object value at least 16,000 euros
trade tax return	1/10 to 6/10	Table A, item value at least 8000 euros
Sales tax return as well as additional applications and reports	1/10 to 8/10	Table A, at least 12,500 euros object value (natural persons) or 25,000 euros (corporations)
Gift tax and inheritance tax return (without determining the equalization claim)	2/10 to 10/10	Table A, item value at least 16,000 euros
Determination of an income surplus calculation (agriculture and forestry, commercial enterprise, self-employed work)	5/10 to 30/10	Table B, item value at least 17,500 euros
Determination of income from income-related expenses (employee work, capital assets, renting and leasing, other income)	1/20 to 12/20	Table A, item value at least 8,000 euros

The costs for meetings or participation in examinations are also regulated in Table A. The tax consultant receives a time fee for preparatory work or the examination of the tax assessment.

Example: Costs for a tax return with income from self-employment over 30,000 euros

First, the tax consultant prepares an income surplus calculation. The full fee according to table B would be 203 euros. The accountant may calculate 5/10 to 30/10 of this. With a medium effort, about 17.5/10 are due, that is 345.10 euros. In addition, there is the income tax return on the income. Here the full fee according to table A is currently 892 euros. The tax consultant may estimate 1/10 to 6/10 costs. With an equally medium effort, 3.5/10, i.e. 267.60 euros, come together here.

Overall, the client pays costs for

• income determination and
• his tax return.

All in all, that’s 612.70 euros in this example. This does not include the costs for a sales tax return. However, everyone has a bit of an influence on the amount of the costs. The more complete and structured the documents are, the less work the tax advisor has to do and the lower the factor – and thus the invoice – will be. Anyone who would like to know in advance what costs they will incur can use Cyberlab’s tax consultant remuneration calculator to calculate the approximate amount.

What must be on the invoice for tax advice?

The accountant’s invoice should list the fees (basic fee and factor) for each item. The expenses and the regulations applied should also be listed. Fees billed by time should include the hourly rate and time spent, as well as the nature of the job. In principle, it should also be clear which fee regulation is currently used for billing. The result is a net total to which sales tax is added.

Tax consultants usually calculate their work according to an average factor. As a rule, this is also legally permitted for the professional group. Of course, tax consultants are free to settle at a lower rate. However, if a higher rate is chosen, this must be justifiable in each individual case.

Have tax consultants become more expensive?

Yes, tax consulting activities have generally become more expensive recently. On July 1, 2020 there was a comprehensive change in the tax consultant remuneration regulation. This brought about an increase in value fees of around twelve percent. Tax consultants can not only charge more basic fees for an average activity, but are even obliged to do so due to the change.

If taxpayers have recently paid more money for their tax advice, this can be due to the new regulation or to additional work. A change in the price structures within the law firm is also conceivable. For example, due to inflation or increased energy costs. This is evident when an accountant previously billed at a factor lower than the middle, but is now charging more money. Then it is advisable to take a closer look at the invoice. If the background to the increase remains unclear, a personal inquiry often brings clarity.

More: Guide Tax Return 2022 – How to get the most out of it

This article was published on January 18th, 2023. It has been re-examined and updated with slight adjustments.